Page 10 of The Den of Sin
“Ummm, I’ll wait here. You go ahead.”
Ryan turned his gaze at Vasili.
“I’ll pass.” Of course he would. He bowed to nobody, people admired him, not the other way around.
And those two were gone, leaving me standing next to the man that made my body burn with lust. I watched those two walk away from us and suddenly wished I’d went along for the pictures. Enduring photos would have been better than staying alone with Vasili; tension and nervous energy seeped through each pore of me.
God, this man was making me nervous. Even after all those years, he succeeded in rattling me. I was older and wiser now; nobody should impact me like that.
“How’ve you been, Isabella?” His question startled me and I almost spilled my champagne.
“Good, thanks.” I sucked at small talk. With Vasili Nikolaev, I sucked at everything. I wished we weren’t in public, so I could just turn my back at him and walk away. Or flip him a middle finger and tell him to go fuck himself. “You?”
“Not too bad. You are living in L.A., huh?”
After our one-night stand where Tatiana’s oldest brother used me for his revenge, I avoided Vasili like a plague. The secrets I couldn’t have even fathomed came out into the light and changed things forever. He granted me one thing - we wouldn’t tell Tatiana and Sasha what my mother had done to his family, if I kept to myself that I had slept with him. I agreed.
“Yep.”
In order to avoid looking at him, my eyes traveled to Ryan and Natasha. She was giggling like a little school girl, trying to get as many selfies out of him. She was very pretty, with her long blonde hair and her tall frame. Somehow her and Vasili fit well together.Unlike me, I thought wryly. I was barely pushing five foot five, my skin looked pale compared to his permanent tan, and my thick hair was too dark for my complexion.
“I never took you for a big city girl.”
My skin tingled with awareness, his body too close but not close enough. His gaze lazily traveled down my body, melting every inch of me into a wanton puddle. How was it possible that even after everything, my body reacted so strongly to him?
“Well, I’m not a girl anymore,” I retorted. “It’s fun living here.”
“Do you still surf?” I was surprised he remembered I liked surfing. I annoyed Tatiana with it all the time, but when Vasili was around, I tended to listen more than talk.
“Sometimes.” God, I wished Ryan would just come on. I didn’t want to stand here with this man and make small talk. My skin tightened with tension and that familiar tingling sensation that only happened around him. It threatened to burst into fireworks, and I suspected it wasn’t the good kind.
I watched Ryan and Natasha giggling some more and my annoyance grew by the second.
“You look good, Isabella.” My skin flushed at his compliment, and I knew my cheeks blushed crimson red. His flattery flared the anger within me, and the hurt I buried deep inside.
“Don’t make small talk with me, Vasili,” I murmured, meeting his eyes. He was still the most handsome man I had ever seen, but I wouldn’t forget that he considered me his enemy. I was his revenge. For something I had no control over.A Nikolaev always settles the score. “And let’s not pretend we are friends.”
Without a backwards glance, I strode to Ryan and Natasha with my back stiff, painfully aware of Vasili’s eyes on the back of my head. I plastered a fake smile on my face as I approached my boyfriend letting Natasha snap another selfie.Gees, how many selfies does a person need?I wondered.
“Babe.” Ryan wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into his body. I couldn’t help but compare my body’s response to Ryan’s touch and Vasili’s proximity. The latter didn’t even have to touch me and I was putty for him. Ryan’s lips met mine and although I regularly hated over-the-top displays of affection, I let him in hopes of erasing the hyperactive awareness of Vasili in the room. It didn’t work.
“Ready to go home?” I murmured low against his lips.
“Yes.” Ryan waved behind me at Vasili and tilted his head at Natasha.
I’d need another five years to recover from seeing Vasili Nikolaev tonight.
Chapter Two
Vasili
Ryan Johnson was lucky I didn’t smash his pretty face into the marble floors of this reception room among all the reporters. With a clenched jaw, I watched him pull Isabella’s soft body into his and press his mouth to hers. She let him, but there was a slight tension in her body. I read her body’s responses like an open book. I might have had her for only one night, but she melted under my touch and my body. Fuck, the way she melted into me that night was pure perfection.
And I threw it all away.To keep a promise, I thought bitterly.
From the moment I spotted her in that dress, her amazing tits on display and the slits up both sides of the skirt showing off her legs with every step, my hard cock refused to subside. There was nothing more I wanted than to kill her boyfriend and take her home with me. Everything about her made my cock hard. And the way she raised her haughty chin of hers, defiance in her eyes… fuck, it was enough to make me spill.
Ryan placed another kiss on her soft skin, and I gritted my molars. She wasn’t his. I could still hear her moans in my head, feel her soft skin under my rough palms. The rage blinded me at seeing her boyfriend touch her.
